Market for midprice flipped homes is down in Ohio, nationally

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 17, 2013 at 5:32 AM

As the housing market recovers, house flipping has declined. A study released this morning by the real-estate information and listing firm RealtyTrac concludes that 32,993 U.S. homes were flipped - bought and then sold within six months - in the third quarter, down 35 percent from the second quarter and down 13 percent from the third quarter of 2012.

Jim Weiker, The Columbus Dispatch

As the housing market recovers, house flipping has declined.

A study released this morning by the real-estate information and listing firm RealtyTrac concludes that 32,993 U.S. homes were flipped — bought and then sold within six months — in the third quarter, down 35 percent from the second quarter and down 13 percent from the third quarter of 2012.

Instances of flipping in Ohio also declined, from 861 homes during the third quarter of 2012 to 655 homes in the third quarter of this year. According to RealtyTrac, those homes were bought for an average of $113,995 and sold for an average of $131,926.

In central Ohio, 72 homes were flipped during the quarter, down from 111 the previous quarter and 152 the third quarter of 2012. The average flipped central Ohio home cost $143,219 and sold for $181,387.

Nationally, the average margin between the purchase and sale price rose from $48,893 in the third quarter of 2012 to $54,927 of the third quarter this year, in part because of an increase in high-end home flips.

“Increasing home prices over the past 18 months combined with decreasing foreclosures have created a market less favorable to the high quantity of middle- to low-end bread-and-butter flips that we saw late last year and early this year,” said RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist in a news release.

“But the sharp rise in high-end flipping indicates there is still good money to be made for flippers willing and able to take on the additional risk of buying and rehabbing more expensive homes.”

The most active markets for flipping during the third quarter were Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Bernardino/Riverside, Calif., and Detroit.